Black Tie White Noise by David Bowie

Black Tie White Noise, David Bowie's eighteenth studio album, arrived on 5 April 1993 on Arista in the UK and Savage in the US, and it's the sound of a man clearing his head after Tin Machine. Freshly married to Iman, Bowie spent most of 1992 recording in Montreux, Los Angeles and New York, and brought back Nile Rodgers, his Let's Dance partner, to co-produce, though Rodgers later made clear he wasn't happy with how it went.

It's a restless grab bag: art rock, electronics, soul, jazz, pop and a whiff of hip-hop, with Bowie blowing plenty of saxophone and guests like Mike Garson, Mick Ronson, Lester Bowie and Chico O'Farrill passing through. The title track grew out of the 1992 Los Angeles riots, and the record circles racial harmony and the new marriage, while "Jump They Say" nods to his step-brother Terry. It entered the UK chart at number one, but the collapse of Savage left it stranded in America. Bowie skipped the tour and made a film instead, and his long comeback started here.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.